The battered ship slowly pulled up into the port. As soon as they dropped anchor, the crew swiftly abandoned ship. Several of the dock workers ran up to help unload the cargo and the crew’s belongings before the eventual collapse, hoping they wouldn’t go with it. The party were the last ones to leave, just as the hull buckled and the ship began to sink, everyone successfully evacuated. Sonya sat on the edge of the pier, looking at the ship slowly disappearing into the sea.
“We’re really sorry about that,” Grey said.
“It’s fine, not your fault,” Sonya replied. “If anything, you saved us. We’d all be kraken food if you weren’t around.
“But the ship-“
“Losing your ship is an occupational hazard. Hopefully the dock workers can put it back together. Guess I’m stuck here for a while.” She stood up and sighed “Still, there’s one more thing we need to do here. We’ve got to find your tour guide.” She stood up. “He’s a pretty great guy, I’ve worked with him before.”
The group walked down the dock while Sonya briefed her crew about what to do next. Patrick noticed that all of the dock workers had pointy ears.
“There’s elves around here,” he commented “I saw a few back in Corinth, but not many.”
“Hammervale is the home of the elves,” Sonya explained as she caught up. “You’ll find a lot of them around here. They’ve never been on great terms with Corinth, but that usually changes when a Dark Lord bands everyone together to fight under one banner. It’s pretty good for Sable in some ways.”
“When was the last time the Dark Lord fell?” Grey asked.
“About seventy years ago, I think? Well before I was born, at least. It’s usually around a hundred years between every resurrection, so he was a little quick off the mark this time.”
“Who was the last hero that killed him?”
“I…” She was about to say something before being stopped, “I don’t recall, sorry.”
“His name wasn’t Maximilian, by any chance?”
Sonya completely ignored them and kept walking towards town.
“Al’Vash is one of the smaller ports of Hammervale,” she explained. “Figured it would be easier to enter the country through the back door. Valzekt’s spies could be anywhere.”
“Something’s snapping them back,” Grey commented as the rest of the party continued following Sonya. “I think I’ve seen this before, but now we know what’s going on, it’s a lot more obvious. I wonder if there’s some way to break whatever’s stopping them from talking.”
“I remember that happened once,” Amelia said. “At the top of the tower in Kries. The one you all forgot. Game basically broke down before Draconautis killed us.”
“Similar thing happened when you all left the palace,” James added. “Delarius got to talk a little before he died.”
“It must be something to do with when the characters are being focused on,” Grey deduced. “It’s like when something is off camera in a normal game, it deloads to save on memory. When we’re in places we shouldn’t reach, that’s when people can act normally.”
“Great, but how do we get there in the first place?” Patrick asked. “And how do we get out without being mind wiped again?”
“Draconautis is dead,” James reminded him. “Hopefully that gives us some room to work with. As for how we get them ‘off camera’…good question. Hell if I know. We probably won’t be meeting that old man again.”
“This is messed up,” Amelia muttered.
The group walked off the dock and into town. They were flanked by elegantly carved sandstone buildings, many of which had flowers in the window or on the roof. The streets were packed, the elves dressed lightly despite the beating sun.
“That’s odd,” Sonya commented. “There’s not usually this many people out.”
Grey turned to one of the elves. “Is something going on today?”
The elf replied in a strange language, which Sonya translated.
“He says something’s happening in the town centre,” she explained. “A bandit raid. Doesn’t know what they want.”
Grey was surprised.
“That’s gotta be our first quest in this region,” Amelia said. “Let’s get moving.”
She started quickly pushing through the crowd, and the other’s followed, although their path through the elves was carved less viciously. As they pushed on through, Grey seemed focused elsewhere, glancing around at the other elves talking around them.
James looked at them. “Is something wrong, Grey?”
“Yeah,” they replied. “I thought I recognised what they were saying when we arrived, and now I’m certain of it. The elvish language seems to be a version of Spanish. It’s pretty mangled, and I’m a bit rusty, but I'm certain it's that.”
"Wait, you know Spanish?" James asked.
“Where’d you learn it?” Patrick asked.
“I found a book on it," Grey replied. "Thought it would be nice to expand my horizons a bit.”
“You can’t get those books in America anymore. They stopped teaching foreign languages in school ages ago. I only know another language because my family are immigrants.”
“It was an old book. Must have slipped past notice.”
Patrick raised an eyebrow, but dropped his line of questioning. It wasn’t long before they reached the town centre. The crowd stopped at the edge of the square, which was a large tiled area with a statue in the middle. The statue depicted a cloaked man with an axe hefted over his shoulder and a sword in his other hand. He was much younger, but James recognised it immediately: SoulArmoury, the man who had led him into the tunnel beneath Corigrad Palace.
What the hell is that guy’s deal? James thought.
He then looked down to see what the commotion was about. A group of bandits, wearing light leather armour and a few scrapes of plate armour, were standing around the base of the statue, holding an assortment of crossbows and scimitars. An elf’s body was pinned up to the statue’s base with a spear, blood running onto the cobblestones below.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Who’s he?” James asked Sonya.
“He was meant to be your tour guide,” she replied.
One of the bandits, the one who was wearing the most armour, raked his scimitar across the stone. He was scanning the crowd, but didn’t seem to see the party through the large swathes of people who had just shown up.
“Come on out, heroes of Sable!” He shouted. “We know you’re here. Stay quiet and more will die.”
Amelia was the closest to the front, holding the hilt of her sword, ready to strike. She didn’t move, though. James walked next to her.
“Do you want to strike when they can’t see us?” James asked.
“They’re…” She stuttered. “They’re real, aren’t they?”
Patrick was the first to walk forward from the crowd, pulling the brim of his hat down as he did so.
“I’m here,” he said. “What do you want?”
“To get your asses back home,” the bandit leader shouted, raising his sword. “You’re just pawns of Corinth sent to invade us, right?”
“I would have listened to your grievances,” Grey replied, stepping out of the crowd as well, “but it seems you’re just terrorising the townsfolk. We can’t allow that. Leave, or we’ll make you.”
The two magicians raised their staffs and pointed them at the bandit leader. He just smiled.
“Alright, boys,” he said, “there’s sure as hell more of these dumbasses hiding from us. Kill ‘em on sight.”
The bandit leader ran at Grey and swung their scimitar, but Grey causally sidestepped them before they received an energy bolt to the back from Patrick. They turned around to look at the Sage, only for Grey to whack him on the back of his head with their staff.
Bandit Leader
75/130 HP
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Trident743
175/250 Mana
Another bandit tried to rush stab Grey in the back while they weren’t looking, but Sonya burst out of the crowd and stabbed them in the back with a cutlass, allowing Grey to finish the bandit off with an energy bolt to the head.
Bandit
0/50 HP
“Sorry,” she said as she pulled her sword out, “but these guys still need to pay me.”
“We’re paying you?” Grey asked, “I thought this was on Corinth.”
“Well now your tour guide is dead, you are paying me extra.”
Amelia and James kept watching on from the crowd.
“How are they joking about this?” Amelia asked. “Now we know they’re people…”
“Because they respawn,” James replied. “Whatever’s been done to them, I don’t think it’s permanent. We just need to do this to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Then we c-”
“How do you know that? You don’t remember what Delarius sa-”
James glared at her. “I saw Delarius the moment he died, and he has to go through that every damn day. I know how bad it is for them, and it sucks we have to do this, but we don’t have a choice but to fight. Just have to play by Kable’s rules for now.”
“Are you sure we have to, or is that just an excuse not to try and do more?”
While they were talking, a bandit shot a crossbow bolt into Grey’s shoulder.
Skibabylon
185/200 HP
After that, James leapt out of the crowd, slamming his sword down on the ground
Cieth
Crash Blade
---
Bandit 2-6
35/50 HP
He twirled his shortsword as he got up. “Real or not, I won’t let you hurt my friends.”
“That can be arranged!” The leader shouted. He and another bandit tried to attack James in a pincer attack, but James blocked the leader’s attack with his shield and blocked the subordinate with his sword. James kicked the underling’s knees, knocking him over, and stabbed him in the gut. Sonya fished him off by kicking him in the head while he was down.
Bandit 2
0/50 HP
“You are a pathetic lot,” James said, as him and the leader clashed blades again. “Killing unarmed civilians just to get at us.”
“We had no choice,” the bandit leader replied. “It was the only way to get to you. We have to do this.”
James could see what was in his eyes: fear. He may have done this on his own accord before, but now, he was just a pawn of Kable.
“I’ll put you out of your misery,” James said. “I’m sorry this had to happen. We’ll find a solution, I swear.”
At this, Amelia ran out of the crowd and stabbed the bandit captain in the back. Held on her sword, James proceeded to slit his throat.
GlassAngel
Piercing Blow
---
Bandit Leader
0/130 HP
“I’m sorry,” Amelia whispered, as she yanked the sword out of his chest. She looked up at James. “I know your speech was to make things easier. I don’t think it did.”
James sighed. “I shouldn’t have expected it to.”
Patrick created a ball of fire in his hand. “Well, your boss is dead. Watcha wanna do?”
The remaining bandits glanced back and forth, staggered to their feet, and nodded to each other. They immediately scattered, fleeing into the crowd.
Encounter Complete
Level Up!
All Party Members gain 1000XP
All Party Members gain 900 Gold
---
Fast Travel Unlocked
Al’Vash
The characters had their first foot in the Hammerfell Republic, and already blood had been spilled.
James Stats: Level: 9 VIT: 200/350 STR: 20 DEF: 30 DEX: 10 SPL: 20 INT: 1
Amelia Stats: Level: 9 VIT: 150/200 STR: 30 DEF: 15 DEX: 25 SPL: 5 INT: 1
Grey stats: Level: 9 VIT: 185/200 STR: 20 DEF: 15 DEX: 15 SPL: 30 INT: 1 Healing Pool: 600/600
Patrick stats: Level: 9 VIT: 132/150 STR: 35 DEF: 15 DEX: 20 SPL: 25 INT: 1 Mana: 170/250
